1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a client/server system wherein a server equipped with a storage unit for storing items of mail therein is connected with a plurality of clients through a communication line. More particularly, it relates to a mail system wherein items of mail are transmitted and received among a plurality of clients.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, the transmission and reception of items of mail through the storage unit of a server among clients in a mail system have proceeded as stated below. The area size of the storage unit of the server is divided into areas for the individual clients beforehand. The client on a mail transmission (source or addresser) side writes the item of mail into his/her own area within the storage unit of the server. Subsequently, the mail software of the server transfers the mail to that area of the storage unit of the server which corresponds to the destination of the mail. For the client on the reception (destination or addressee) side, the reception of the mail is detected by the function of a network operating system, a module for monitoring the reception of mail as has been made resident in advance, or the like, and a display is presented on display means to the effect that the mail has been received. Thus, the user on the reception side can determine the arrival of the mail addressed to him/her. Herein, the user starts mail software at his/her convenience, or when he/she is performing any job by the use of another application in the state in which the mail software has already been started, he/she changes-over the applications. Thereafter, he/she loads the corresponding mail stored in the storage unit of the server by the use of the mail software so as to ascertain the content thereof.
The above prior-art technique is stated in, for example, feature articles "Widened Choice of Electronic Mail Software" in NIKKEI COMPUTER dated May 4, 1992, issued by Nikkei BP Inc.
With the prior-art technique, for each client who has received an item of mail addressed to him/her, the fact of the reception can be displayed on the display unit or the like by, e.g., the function of the network operating system or the module for monitoring the mail reception as has been made resident in advance. Therefore, the user can be informed of the mail reception even during the course of a different job.
In order to ascertain the content of the received mail, however, the user needs to expressly start the mail software or change-over the applications even when the mail software has already been started. This poses the problem that the handling of the mail system is inconvenient to the user.
The attributes of the received mail, such as urgency and importance, are discriminated by the function of the mail software. The display of the mail reception merely reports the reception itself, and it disappears when the user has made a reply of confirmation thereto. Therefore, although the user can know of the reception of the mail at the time of the reception, he/she can find out the attribute of the mail only when he/she has started the mail software. Moreover, even when the mail software has already been started, the user can find out the attribute of the mail only after the change-over to the use of the mail software when the plurality of sorts of application software have been started and where the application software other than the mail software is being used. In other words, even when the received mail is urgent, the user on the reception side cannot know the urgency except by ascertaining it through the mail software. This poses the problem that the user might fail to promptly reply to urgent mail, or that, in an extreme case, he/she might even forget having received the mail because of his/her immersion in the other job.
Further, on the side on which the mail has been received, the user ascertains the content of the mail by loading the corresponding mail from within the storage unit of the server. Therefore, when there is much communication line traffic in the case of replaying and displaying an item of animation mail or the like, the prior art involves the problem that a long time is expended on the data transfer, so the normal replaying display is impossible.